Rod Logan @ The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver

Rod Logan: 10,000 Ships
The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver
Through March 31, 2019

ROD LOGAN 

Untitled photographs, c. 1994-2015 

Courtesy the artist and Chris Wright 

The Polygon Gallery showcases an exhibition of some 10,000 Ships sailing in and out of Vancouver's ports since the early 1980s in a truly unique photographic archive created by local photographer and marine enthusiast Rod Logan.

For Rod Logan, shipping became a keen and pervasive interest in the early 1980s, and with his first acquisition of a camera in 1994 he began documenting this passion, an activity that he continues today. Before switching to digital photography, Rod Logan shot on film, printing each roll at a one-hour photo shop, then carefully annotating each print with the date, time and name of the depicted ship or vessel. The images include a complete range of every type of working vessel, from barges, merchant and container ships, to tugboats, ferries, government ships and navy vessels…even the odd cruise ship.

Rod Logan’s photographs are taken from many locations, but a focus on Burrard Inlet has provided a few favourite vantage points: the Lion’s Gate and Ironworkers Memorial Bridges, as well as Prospect Point. From these spots, day after day, year after year, Rod Logan has crafted a remarkable eyewitness account of the unremitting comings and goings of Vancouver’s harbour, while building an indelible picture of the industries underpinning our trade and maritime economies.

During the postwar period in Europe and North America, a tradition of amateur hobbyists fascinated with “spotting” trains took hold, spurred by the publication of compendium guides showing locomotive varieties. Trainspotters set out to “collect” as many sightings as possible, keeping an eye out for different categories, makes and models, with the goal of completing a set. Other modes of transportation grew to have their own unique enthusiasts, and now “spotters” are as diverse as is modern technology.

THE POLYGON GALLERY
101 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver BC, V7M 3J4 CA
thepolygon.ca